What is ‘Narcoculture’ and Why It Drives Success: The Peso Pluma Case and ‘Corridos Tumbados’

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Perhaps all of us who listened to Peso Pluma remember the first time we did because it was undoubtedly the first time we heard a corrido tumbado. Yes, this explosive subgenre that mixes the music of traditional Mexican corridos with lyrics and styles directly from trap and hip-hop.

With recurring themes around hedonism, drug consumption, sex, love, and heartbreak, it has become the new favorite style of youth beyond Mexican borders, even in countries where Anglo-American music has almost exclusively triumphed, such as the United States.

In 2023, the explosion of corridos that secured Peso Pluma 21 entries on the Billboard chart also contributed to elevate regional Mexican styles (mariachi, norteño, sierreño…) to another level, resonating with names like Grupo Frontera, Fuerza Regida, or Carín León, collaborating with mainstream figures like Bad Bunny, Shakira, and Maluma, respectively.

Starting from this point, at LOS40, we want to address a question that many of us have asked ourselves. What is this phenomenon of corridos tumbados that we haven’t seen in Latin music since the Argentine trap fever? Can the unprecedented success of artists like Peso Pluma really occur in such a short period?

To understand these issues, we have to grasp the context in which this music develops and is consumed, and therefore, the meaning of key elements such as narcoculture and its role in the success of corridos tumbados, also sometimes dubbed «narcocorridos.»

The ‘Started from the Bottom’: Narcoculture & Becoming a «Real G»

The unrestrained success of Doble P has led us to ask many questions, including what his life was like before fame and the components that have made him the Mexican artist with the highest positions on international charts.

In the wake of his success, several academics have pointed to the so-called «narcoculture» as the background that can explain the explosion of corridos tumbados and the success of the Jalisco-born artist.

«[The success of Peso Pluma] is related to the issues of mass media and social networks that generated an identity about our country, but it is closely linked to drug trafficking, which is very present in our imagination and in our society (…) they are like superheroes or role models, they seek to have respect, primarily. It’s not just a great voice; it’s the combination of different factors, feeling identified that had not been represented by that social sector, wanting to become like them. Now being Peso Pluma is the role model to follow,» said Mexican anthropologist Horacio Mendizábal in an interview with Infobae.

According to academic studies, narcoculture is a term that encompasses the set of collective elements, customs, forms of identification, and relationships that have been created through the problem of drug trafficking, impacting society at various levels, including cultural production. While the illicit trade and consumption of narcotics are an international and globalized problem, drug trafficking and its effects have become one of the most determining elements in Latin America.

In Mexico, there has been a rise in generalized violence since the war on drugs in 2006, with an increase in crimes such as extortion, kidnapping, human trafficking, and major offenses driven by significant increases in drug-related crimes, which have risen by 149% in the last decade.

Understanding this context of widespread crisis in the country is crucial to comprehend the identifying elements that connect the public, especially the younger generations, with the romanticization of drug use and crime.

Similar to hip-hop that originated in the African American communities of the 1970s in the New York Bronx, or trap that exploded in Georgia, Atlanta, in the 1990s, reaching countries like Argentina through street rap battles, corridos tumbados have become popular in a historical context marked by crisis, youth precarity, and marginalization, where drug use and the adoption of gangsta culture form the basis of underground socialization.

«Music is a reflection of any social context, and that is why we can sometimes divide its audience so sectorially. Both genres emerge and develop around drugs: trap arises from trap houses, starting as a marginal genre, and corridos from drug-trafficking. The lyrics show a raw reality with which a specific audience can identify or be possessed by the morbid curiosity of entering a world that does not belong to them. Both genres are directly associated with the working classes and the consequences of systematic marginalization,» says musicologist and industry expert Lorena Jiménez Martínez to LOS40.

Commercial Success And/Or Why Drugs Can Be Sold as Something ‘Fun’

Although the triumph of the gangsta figure, bad boys, and the successful advocacy of drug consumption is widely accepted in various cultural spheres, with hip-hop as the ultimate exponent, it is normal to wonder how something representing such a decisive social issue can succeed in this way. Yes, why can drugs be sold as something fun? Well, because they are, if we only focus on their recreational aspect, which is precisely what songs in these genres do.

If we rewind a bit in history, we can review that corridos tumbados, brought back by Mexican artists like Natanael Cano, are not a 100% new subgenre in the country. To understand their development, we would first have to go back to the corridos of the 19th century, addressing different social situations during the Mexican independence era.

Years later, the rhythms of rancheras and romantic baladas also collided with the cultural context emerging with drug trafficking, resulting in the 1970s in what was the first anthem that kicked off the so-called narcocorridos: the song «Contrabando y Traición» by Los Tigres del Norte. The controversial hit ensured the prohibition of the subgenre in the country.

A censorship that, by the way, has also sought to be carried out with the songs of Peso Pluma 50 years later: the narcocorridos have been banned by the Tijuana city council.

However, what gives success to these new corridos tumbados is that they focus solely on the most recreational and enjoyable aspect of hedonistic pleasures, such as drug consumption. Unlike their origins, these new lyrics and styles exclude the context and social issues — in short, their more political dimension — to welcome a more mainstream and extrapolatable message.

This, coupled with a need for identity references and the strong emergence of regional styles (something that could also explain the rise of K-Pop or Indian music, for example) in a musical landscape that tends towards homogenization in a globalized world, according to Jiménez.

«If we focus on the intrinsically musical, corridos tumbados respond to an identity need. Due to the consequences of globalization and the loss of identity in artists, regional sounds are introduced into the interests of singers, regardless of the country we are talking about. They need to connect in some way with root sounds that, due to the homogenization that has been happening for decades, had been diluted,» says the musicologist.

In this sense, the popularization of corridos tumbados can be equated, as mentioned earlier, to the boom of Spanish-speaking trap in Spain or Argentina — whose lyrics also revolve around the praise of drugs and the ostentatiousness of the gangsta lifestyle. «Their popularization and international introduction were practically the same; trap was a niche genre for a few years until its sounds entered the mainstream, and there were national representatives who made the message from the United States understood in the best way in Spanish society. Both genres are absorbed, emptied, exposed, and internationalized by accepted and visible faces,» explains Jiménez.

In conclusion, the sudden success — although if we review its historical development, perhaps not so sudden — of corridos tumbados can be understood through various cultural elements, such as the concept of narcoculture itself, but also due to the identity needs present in the industry that lead this subgenre and these artists to connect directly with the younger generations.